Efua Baker is a Ghanaian-British celebrity fitness expert and personal trainer. She became known to us in the health and fitness scene in 2004 when she was on the BBC One programme Fat Nation – the Big Challenge but Baker has been working long before then – in the music industry.

Known as just Efua, the 50-year-old was a music star back in the 90s with three hit singles: “Down Is the Drop”, “Strawberry Boy”, and “Somewhere” receiving massive airplay around the world. Her most successful hit was “Somewhere” and it reached the top 50 in the UK, and the top 20 in Australia. She went on to release an album, Dream Juice in 1993. Before her music career, Efua Baker worked as a model and a dancer, and appeared in a number of music videos for other artists like Soul II Soul’s “A Dreams a Dream” – she later got married to Soul II Soul frontman Jazzie B and has two children.

Though her parents are academics, she and her siblings all turned to sports. One of her brothers is a basketballer, the other does martial arts and her sister is a runner.

Now a celebrity fitness expert with over 15 years’ experience in the field, Efua has become known as ‘THE’ Body Producer. Efua’s exercise programme focuses on how to strengthen your body with different levels of difficulty and her philosophy derives from mental fitness.”If I can’t get an idea of what makes someone tick, I can’t work on them losing weight,” she once told the Evening Standards.

She concentrates on quick ‘turnarounds’ – bespoke, intensive workout and nutrition programmes that are designed to deliver the fastest results possible. Based in London UK, Efua works with celebrity clients especially models and actresses around the world.

Most notable is her work on actor Christian Bale when he was preparing for his role as Batman. He told Peoples Magazine, “I couldn’t do a single pushup,” says Bale but soon after he was able to add 40 lbs. over the next few months, with the help of trainer Efua Baker and a strict diet of chicken, tuna and steamed vegetables. “He worked harder than anyone I’ve ever trained,” says Baker, who guided him through a daily three-hour running and weight sessions. “Every morning he would look different from the day before.”

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